. exhibit a, the 20% across the board tax cut that is estimated to cost taxpayers $4.8 trillion. >> governor romney's central economic plan calls for a $5 trillion tax cut on top of the extension of the bush tax cuts. >> first, i don't have a $5 trillion tax cut. i don't have a tax cut of the scale that you're talking. no economist can say mitt romney's tax plan adds 5 trillion. about i say i will not add to the deficit with my tax plan. >> romney never actually said there would be a 20% tax cut? >> i'm going to lower rates across the board for all americans by 20%. i want a 20% across the board reduction in taxes. the individual marginal tax rate 20% across the board. the top rate, for instance, would go from 35 to 28, middle rates would come down by 20% as well, all rates come down. >> president obama was just as surprised. >> well, for 18 months he's been running on this tax plan. and now, five weeks before the election, he's saying that his big, bold idea is never mind. >> but the etch a sketching did not stop there. governor romney who once believed financial regulation was

obama will be tough on romney and say this is a guy who wants to give tax cuts to the wealthc and to voucherrize medicare. romney will say he is the defender of the middle class. t both sides say this could get heated tonight. >> chris, thank you. >> good evening. >> we go to jim lehrer of pbs moderating this debate. >> i'm jim lehrer and welcome you to the first of the 2012l presidential debates between president barack obama the democratic nominee and former, massachusetts governor mitt romney the republican nominee. this debate and the next three, two presidential, one vice presidential, are sponsored byo the commission on presidential debates. tonight's 90 minutes will be about domestic issues and will follow a format designed by the commission. there will be six roughly 15 minute segments with two minutt answers for are the first question and then open discussion for the remainder o. each segment. o thousands of people offered suggestions on segment subjects or questions via the internet and other means.. but i made the final selections and for the record, they were not submitte

company, drilling operators and so forth. but if we get that tax rate down to 25%, that $2 important 8 billion is on the table. that's probably not going to survive. but don't forget, you put $ninety billion, like 50 years worth of breaks into soular and wind, to solyndra, fisker, i have a friend who said, you don't just pick the winners and losers, you pick the losers. >> he was talking about the energy plan. president obama picking losers. we will get the simpson-bowles one. let's bring in the panel for analysis. brit hume and joe trippi. okay, brit. your thoughts? >> well, you are right, governor romney came out. he was aggressive. when do you that, you are always in danger of seeming rude or... pugneighbors. i don't think he d. -- bug -- pugnacious. high seemed to display extraordinary knowledgeability. i don't think president obama had a bad night in the sense that he was way off his game. he was a lot like the president obama we are used to hearing. i don't think he seemed rusty. but i don't think he had the spark or the energy or the precision tonight that governor romney had. g

. jobs, taxes, health care. and big bird? yes, the first presidential debate is in the books. the consensus was that mitt romney desperately needed a strong showing. and as grace lee shows us, he pretty much delivered. >> reporter: the polls show that the former governor knocked it out of the park. 500 uncommitted voters asked who won this debate. 46% said it was romney. only 20% said the president was the victor for the night. the man who has been fighting to show that he relates to the average american this whole election cycle, 56% of those polled say they had a better opinion of the former governor now. what started out as cordial quickly became heated. >> governor romney's proposal that he's been promoting for 18 months calls for a $5 million tax cut. and he is saying that he is going to pay for it by closing loopholes in deductions. the problem is, he's been asked over 100 times how you would close those deductions and loopholes and he hasn't been able to identify them. >> everything you just said about my tax plan is inaccurate. so if the tax plan he described were a tax pl

getting crushed. >> that is what joe biden says. >> how they can justify raising taxes on the middle-class who have been buried the last four years. >> to joe biden. no, don't boo. he is the best thing we have got going, guys. >> it was the biggest brownson's encore. i read that in a column friday morning. on the cover 25th, 1415 on christmas day at parkton corps, king henry led his army to victory. charles the six was mentally incapacitated at the time of battle. that is as far as i want to take that one. agincourt? >> yes, you were there, as i recall. you covered it for the daily frog. it was quite a rout. when i wrote the column, i try to keep from gloating, but i'm not sure i succeeded. >> you did not. >> the washington punditry heavily supported by the polling concludes that government romney won the first debate hands down and that the president was off his game. >> you have been president four years. you said you would cut the deficit in half. we still have trillion dollar deficits. >> five weeks before the election, he says his big bold idea is, never mind. >> if there is any good

, that's where obam will be tough on romney saying he wants to give tax cuts to the wealthy and to voucherrize medicare. romney will say he is the defender of the middle class. one thing both sides say this, could get heated tonight. >> we go to jim lehrer of pbs, moderating this debate. >> jim: i'm jim lehrer. i welcome you to the first of the 2012 presidential debates, between president barack obama, the democratic nominee, and former massachusetts governor, mitt romney, the republican nominee. this debate and the next three, two presidential, one vice-presidential, are sponsored by the commission on presidential debates. tonight's 90 minutes will be about domestic issues and will follow a format designed by the commission. there will be six roughly 15-mute segments, with two-minute answers for the first question. then open discussion for the remainder of each segment. thousands of people offered suggestions on segment subjects or questions via the internet and other means. but i made the final selections. and for the record, they were not submitted for approval to the commission

taxes on the middle class who has been bearish for the last four years. >> to joe biden. [applause] don't boo, he has the best thing we have got going, guys. >> it was the biggest drop since -- i read that in a column friday morning. on the cover 25 1415 the english king henry the fifth led his army to victory. french king charles the sixth was mentally incapacitated at the time of battle. that is about as far as i wanted that one. charles? >> you were there, as i recall, you covered it for "the daily frog." it was felt he could of been moe aggressive. >> quite a route. i must say, when i wrote the column, i tried to keep on quoting -- keep from gloating. >> you did not. >> the whington punditry says that mitt romney won the debate hands down and that the president was aware of his game. here is a sample. >> you have been president four years, you said you would cut the deficit in half. we still have trillion dollar deficits. >> five weeks before the election, he says his big idea is, never mind. >> if there is any good news for the president, it is that the unemployment rate dropp

income taxes. >> 47% of the people will vote for the president no matter what. >> with an ad still repeating those rorks, romney tried to put an end to the controversy once and for all on fox. >> clearly in a campaign with hundreds and thousands of speeches, now and then you're going to say something that doesn't come out right. in this case i said something that is completely wrong. >> reporter: romney next heads to florida. that state's unemployment rate has gone down in recent month, is still well above the national average. wolf? >>> let's bring in our chief political analyst gloria borger and ron bronstein. gloria, the new numbers, how will they impact the president? >> they're a great talking point for the president. very important to be below 8%. the president can't say these are fabulous, this is great. he has to say no, we're heading in the right direction. and that's what's really key for him. republicans and mitt romney of course are saying you know what? this isn't moving fast enough. but at least for the president, after his poor debate performance, now has some good n

washington university, he said mitt romney's poised performance -- >> i will not reduce the taxes paid by high-income americans. >> reporter: romney looked like he wanted to be there. he was engaged. >> coupled with president obama's lackluster performance seems to have changed the tone of the presidential race. >> my faith and confidence in the american future sun diminished. >> i cannot explain what happened to barack obama. he was awol. he was distracted, did he -- defensive, detached. >> reporter: frank said he should have become much more engaged. >> he dropped the ball. there's no way around it. >> reporter: having said all that, he also said that plenty of presidential candidates have rallied after a bad first debate. >> reagan came backin his second debate. >> reporter: and with that in mind he's very much looking forward to the next debate on october 16th. >> romney thinks he's on a roll now. he's going to keep that posture, i would pre excuse me. barack obama has got to have a completely different air about him. he's got to be a combatant, not a visitor. >> reporter: president o

a plan to cut $5 trillion and give these tax cuts to the rich? wait a minute. that's exactly what you've been doing. how can you say that? he says, oh, i'm going to repeal dodd frank. oh, yeah, medicare will be a voucher. these are not good things for mitt romney. >> yeah. juan, you want to throw to your favorite piece for the night? >> sure. here is president obama responding to one of these -- i don't know what you call it, distortion, dreamland that romney presented and i think as time goes on, people will say, these policies are not good policies. not the guy i want to vote for. >> well, for 18 months he's been running on this tax plan and now five weeks before the election, he's saying that his big bold idea is never mind. >> never mind. never mind my promise that i'm going to cut taxes and i'm going to also balance the deficit, but i'm not going to tell you about the loopholes i'm going to close or the deductions. so just trust me. you know, come on. >> that would be -- if that was an effective message, then president obama would have done a lot better last night. that is th

that says if we cut taxes, skewed towards the wealthy and roll back regulation, we'll be better off. i have a different view. i think we have to invest in education and training. i think it's important for us to develop new sources of energy here in america. that we change our tax code to make sure that we're helping small businesses and companies that are investing in the united states. that we take some of the money that we're saving as we wind down two wars, to rebuild america. and that we reduce our deficit in a balanced way that allows us to make critical investments. now, ultimately it will be up to the voters, to you, which path we should take. are we going to double down on the top down economic policies that helped get us into this mess? or do we embrace a new economic patriotism, that says america does best when the middle class does best? i'm looking forward to having that debate. >> governor romney, two minutes. >> thank you, jim. an honor to be with you and pleased to be with the president. i'm pleased to be at the university of denver, i appreciate the welcome and the pre

if we roll back regulations and cut back taxes, well, we will be better off. i have a different view. it is important to develop new sources of energy here in+ america, that we change r tax code to make sure we are helping small businesses and companies investing here in the united states, that we take some of the money we are setting as we wind down two wars, to rebuild america, and we reduce our deficit in a balanced way that allows us to make these critical investments. ultimately it's up to the voters, to you, which path we should take. are we going to double down on the top-down economic policies that help us get into this mess, or do we embrace america doing best when the middle-class. >> of trichet the chance to be here with the president and be at the university of denver -- i appreciate the chance to be here with the president. congratulations to you, mr. president, under anniversary. i am sure this is the most romantic place you can imagine being, here with me. i have had the occasion of the last couple of years in meeting people across the country. i was in dayton, ohio, a

have been but where we're going. governor romney has a perspective that says if we cut taxes, skewed towards the wealthy and roll back regulations, that we'll be better off. i have a different view. i think we have got to invest in education and training. i think it's important for us to develop new sources of energy here in america. that we change our tax code to make sure we're helping small businesses and companies here in the united states, that we take some of the money we're saving as we wind down two wars to rebuild america. now it ultimately is going to be up to the voters to you, which path we should take. are we going to double down on the top-down economic policies that helped get us into this mess, or embrace a new economic patriotism, that says america does best when the middle class does best. >> governor romney two minutes. >> romney: thing you jim. i'm i'm -- pleased to be here with the president and to be here. and congratulations to you, mr. president, i'm sure this is the most romantic place you could imagine here with me. [ laughter ] >> romney: i have had the occ

time we were finished. what were some differences? we didn't raise taxes. have you raised them by $twenty one trillion with obamacare. we cannot didn't cut medicare -- of course, we don't have medicare, by $716 billion. we didn't put into place a board to tell people what treatment they could receive. we didn't do something that a number of people recognize, put people in a position where they are going to lose the insurance that they have and they wanted. right now, the cbo says up to 20 million people will lose insurance as obamacare goes into effect next year. likewise, a study by mckensy and company said 30% of them are anticipating dropping people from coverage. so for those reasons, for the tax, for the medicare, for this board and for people losing their insurance, this is why the american people don't want medicare -- don't want obamacare, it's why republicans said do not do this. the republicans had a plan. they put a plan out. they put a bipartisan plan, it was swept aside. i think something this big, this important, has to be done in a bipartisan baitionz. we have to ha

taxes, try to reign in spending, promote growth in some abstract way, and pay off the debt and the deficit. it's difficult to do. i don't think mitt romney had much in the way of specificity other than to steve's appointment, backing away from the $5 trillion tax cut the president said he's proposed. i think there's a lot of unanswered questions still for governor romney. gerri: steven, do you believe that? the $5 trillion issue, you know, the president says every single day on the campaign trail that mitt romney will raise taxes on the middle class. was that sufficiently answered? >> i think it was. i thought that was the weakest point for mitt romney, the first two minutes where he backed away from the things he argued or not campaign trail and almost apologetic he's offering a tax cut. embrace the cut, gone on the offense of the tax cut if i was mitt romney. at one point after mitt romney said, look, mr. president, what you say is not true. it's not the case that it will necessarily result in a tax hike for the middle class. he said it three times, and the last time, president o

going to end it or, for that matter, those two. to finance a big across the board tax cut but not tell us how. not what big across the board deductions he'll deny people in order to pay for it or even what taxes he's been paying himself over the years. or how he'll finance all those popular things in the president's health care plan once he kills the plan itself. lots of secrets. secrets because he himself has no earthly idea what the answers are. i'm joined by democratic strategist bob shrum and salon's joan walsh. first, however, we have two new national polls on the presidential race. let's check the "hardball" scoreboard. according to a new "washington post"/abc news poll, president obama has a two-point lead holding there, 49%/47%. same score in the new politico poll. obama by two, 49%/47%. "the new york times" this weekend reported on the two campaigns' ongoing debate preps. here is what they said about romney's prep. quote, mr. romney's team has concluded that the debates are about creating moments and has equipped him with a series of zingers he's memorized and has been practic

for a $5 trillion tax cut. >> virtually everything he said about hi tax plan is inaccurate. >> for 18 months he's been running on this tax plan, and now five weeks before the election he's saying that his big bold idea is nevermind. >> let me repeat what i said. i'm not in favor of a $5 trillion tax cut. >> the president's lackluster response sent critics into a tail spin and put team obama on defense. >> i don't know what he was doing out there. he had his head down, he was enduring the debate rather than fighting it. the latest thing we got from romney because he said so, was, you know what i want to do with people when they are poor? shove them in the emergency room. where was obama tonight? >> progressives from chris matthews to bill maher to michael moore all across the progressive wing of the democratic party, there's great disappointment. >> they were jumping out of their seats watching. >> i understand. i understand there was a hunger for us to attack romney more personally than the president did last night. >> bottom line, romney scores, but was last night the first to game-c

politicians say unless we send more tax dollars to sacramento, they'll cut education again. here's a new approach. prop thirty-eight sends billions in new education dollars straight to our local schools, and guarantees the politicians can't touch it. thirty-eight will restore the education cuts from sacramento. so remember this number. thirty-eight. >> the first of three presidential debates is now in the book. we have got the word that on the national level, most polls indicate this race is a dead heat. among the popular vote in many of the swing states, it has tightened up considerably. in florida, it is a statistical dead heat. in the state of ohio, which nn republican has never won an not won the white house, the lead is in president obama's favo . >>> good evening, everyone. i'm frag somerville. >> julie maener. much of the discussion focus on the economy and jobs. >> as you said, the focus clearly on the economy from jobs to taxes to the deficit. mitt romney went on the attack early among other things on what he planned to cut. >> obama care is on my list, apologize mr. preside

them for you and we will do this and going to get that tax cut and encourage small business and we are going to have a real reagan round of reagan activity, the public may say yes, i don't think he is there yet and done that and hasn't sold the deal yet. >> rose: but he scored points last night by constantly referring to the middle class and small business. that was brilliant. >> because he took his business background, which has been a mixed blessing at best and turned it into economics, he kept saying small business, small business, small business, you have to avoid the tax increase that affects small business, et cetera, et cetera and he kept saying businesses. >> that's where the jobs are so he translated business into a good thing and a way to get us out of this economic dull drums, i thought that was doll drums, .. i thought that was masterful too. >> i think obama has tried to rejoin the world, he tried to keep us from being the cowboy in the world and recognize when you go into a war, whatever act of war you commit, whether going into afghanistan on the ground or going in to ir

romney for. let's watch. >> i will not reduce the taxes paid by high income americans. with regards to young people coming along, i have got proposals to make sure medicare and social security are there for them without any question. number one, pre-existing conditions are covered under my plan. we've had 43 straight months with unemployment above 8%. if i'm president, i will create -- help create 12 million new jobs in this country with rising incomes. >> governor, i don't know how he got away with it. i don't know why the president didn't say it. he wants to get rid of the estate tax. the wealthiest people that got a quarter billion bucks in the bank, they want to keep it for their kids when they're gone. that's for the rich. 47%, he said people on social security are a bunch of bums and parasites. now he's saying i just want to save what they have. and this thing about pre-existing condition. he didn't tell the truth last night. he doesn't have a plan to cover it. >> he lied. >> his guy came out and made sure, he said he didn't mean to say that because he only meant people who alrea

future. >> i be[ female announcer ]are who will raise taxes on the middle class? barack obama and the liberals already have. to pay for government-run healthcare, you'll pay higher taxes ndand more for your medicine. and their plan includes a trillion dollars in higher taxes. even on the middle class. mitt romney and common sense conservatives will cut taxes on the middle class. and they'll close loopholes for millionaires. obama and his liberal allies? we can't afford four more years. [omney] i'm mitt romney and i approve this message. >> dicky: from hollywood, it's "jimmy kimmel live!" tonight -- zac efron. jack black and kyle gass. plus music from tenacious d. with cleto and the cletones. and now, in so many words, here's jimmy kimmel! ♪ it's "jimmy kimmel live" [ cheers and applause ] >> jimmy: that's very nice. thank you, thank you. hi, everyone. hi, i'm jimmy, i'm the host of the show. thank you for watching. thank you for coming. thanks for being here. thank you for, most of all, i want to say thank you for looking past my flaws and accepting me for who i am. serious. did

about the 47 percent of americans who do not pay income taxes. those comments will likely comment up tonight. for governor romney, the debate presents a chance to gain momentum by hitting the president where some consider him vulnerable, on jobs and the sluggish economy. the romney campaign has new ammunition from vice president biden and comments yesterday about the middle class. >> how can they justify raising taxes on the middle class which has been buried the last four years. >> an obama advisor defended the vice president saying it is the republican policies that hurt the middle class in the first place. the romney campaign targeting the comment in a brand new ad already. we will show you that in a minute. a new nbc and the "wall street journal," parent company of this network. shows the president ahead 49 percent to 46 percent which is in the margin of error. in the states, it is a different coverage. we have carl cameron with the romney camp and now ed henry on what we can expect tonight. >>reporter: the president is on the way to denver. think how pivotal this city has been t

facts. >> the average person making $3 million is getting a $250,000 tax break while middle-class families are burdened further. that is not what i believe is a recipe for economic growth. >> we clearly are in a crisis. people are losing their jobs, homes, decent wages, affordable health care and higher education. our civil liberties are under attack. the wealthy few are making out better than ever. >> this is also about whether our nation continues down the road toward totalitarianism. >> sound unfamiliar? as president obama and mitt romney squared off for the first time, we break the sound barrier by expanding the debate in real time to include two candidates shut out of the major political parties. the green party's jill stein and the justice party's rocky anderson. expanding the debate. this is what democracy sounds like. all of that and more coming up. this is "democracy now!," democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. we are on the road in denver, colorado. president obama and republican challenger mitt romney squared off in denver wednesday night in the f